Review on Benq DW1620

[loco21]

Hi Ian

I was just wondering, are we gonna see a Benq DW1620 review. Would be neat, I purchased it for 99.99$ canadian, very cheap. may not the best DVD-recorder out there, but does the job.

Thanks

[Ian]

Yes

[Dartman]

I have the 1600/1620 here. It does reall well with plus but wont at this point OC any 4x media, it will OC many 8x though. It reads back most dvd disk pretty well, some of my really well done minus disks evem get up to 16x.
It really doesn't do to well with minus yet but I did get a Fuji ty 02 I think to go 12x with fair results. It will only do DL media at 2.4 max.
They are still working on newer firmwares so some of the bad points may change.
My NEC 3500 does a better job with minus of course and does OC some 4x media to 8 and maybe faster, even with some of the stock firmwares. It doesn't read back DVD's as well but it is quite a bit better then my old 2500 is. It will OC DL media to 4x.
I think the BenQ has potential if they get the minus writing well and maybe get the better 4x media to go faster. It has produced excellent burns with plus media it likes, some OC to 12x even. The active servo tilt helps the quality a bit I think, same idea the Pioneer 108 uses. It supports disk testing and even does jitter but at this point it's so SLOW that it's almost useless unless you've got a hour to kill That may also get fixed later, we'll see.
If it's going to be your only burner use plus media and it will do well, it even supports bitsetting out of the box. If you need a everything burner and don't want to wait and see if it gets better firmware get a NEC or Pioneer.

[loco21]

Thanks for the info Dartman.

I burned 8X on the Benq 8X DVD-R, i purchased, the burn is good, plays well, but for some reason wont play on the Playstation 2 ( modded of course ). it plays but image freezes on some points. Maybe the PS2 has problems reading, who knows. But i like the drive fo far.

[KenW]

loco21

there are at least two not released fw samples being used for reviews on a number of forums , B7J9 and B7K9 <hinted at only not seen yet> and the results on -R look very promising from scans I have seen with B7J9. we can hope to see some 1620 fw in next weeks.

[KenW]

looks like benQ has posted B7J9 and B7K9 on their globle website.

I have posted some scans on cd freaks benQ/philips forum.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=109314

The fw can be download from this address.

http://support.benq.com/files/storage/F ... 0/B7J9.zip

http://support.benq.com/files/storage/F ... 0/B7K9.zip

[uknown1234]

damn it I guess I was sleeping when they posted these firmwares. but why post b7j9 and b7k9 instead of just posting b7k9 only?

[dolphinius_rex]

damn it I guess I was sleeping when they posted these firmwares. but why post b7j9 and b7k9 instead of just posting b7k9 only?

Because all the review sites have B7J9?

[Vanderlow]

but why post b7j9 and b7k9 instead of just posting b7k9 only?

Well it's because they posted B7J9 just 3 hours before they posted B7K9, so there was a little confusion last nite.

[Vanderlow]

Some of the preliminary - burns with the new firmware (over at the other forum) look pretty good now.

[martin thiry]

I've upgraded my 1620 to the latest firmware, the B7K9, but I'm still unable to write -R or -RW DVD's that are readable in my home DVD-Players.

I'm using RITEK 4X DVD-R and have also tried BASF-Emtec DVD-RW DVD's, but no luck there neither !

The DVD-R that I have written work with Power-DVD on my PC and on my modified Microsoft Xbox !

Is the only solution I have, my only alternative, is to change to +R DVD's ?

Thanks for you help anyone?


Martin.

[Dartman]

The drive writes TYG02 media code at 16x now with reasonable quality but some of the cheap minus still does poorly, so get ty minus or maybe stick with good quality plus and bitset it I geuss. The drive has improved quite a bit with minus and maybe plus also with the latest firmware, hopefuly they'll keep working on it, they do seem to care and keep improving with each update.

[martin thiry]

Thanks for the reply.

So you think I should try either better quality -R media or move over to +R DVD's.

I tried the Philips DVD+R that was deliverd with the writer in the box. I managed to read this DVD+R on my PC, Xbox, and on two different Home DVD players.

I have quite a stock of Ritek DVD-R 4X media and would like to use them on my BENQ writer !

Anyhow, at least I know if I use DVD+R media in DVD-Rom mode - it works fine !

Back to you.

Martin

[dolphinius_rex]

The drive writes TYG02 media code at 16x now with reasonable quality but some of the cheap minus still does poorly, so get ty minus or maybe stick with good quality plus and bitset it I geuss. The drive has improved quite a bit with minus and maybe plus also with the latest firmware, hopefuly they'll keep working on it, they do seem to care and keep improving with each update.

What's your best burn time on Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD-Rs @ 16x?

[Dartman]

What's your best burn time on Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD-Rs @ 16x?

Doing a Nero data test burn I got 6:10, 12x is usaully around 6:34 or so.
Some folks have reported faster but That should be a full data disk, not almost full. It also claims CAV burn and rises to about 16x right at the end with the usual wobbles for the WOPC kicking in.
Starts at 6.67 and ends at 15.97, 11.49 average.

[dolphinius_rex]

What's your best burn time on Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD-Rs @ 16x?

Doing a Nero data test burn I got 6:10, 12x is usaully around 6:34 or so.
Some folks have reported faster but That should be a full data disk, not almost full. It also claims CAV burn and rises to about 16x right at the end with the usual wobbles for the WOPC kicking in.
Starts at 6.67 and ends at 15.97, 11.49 average.

Wow... I can only get that with Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+Rs.... you aren't using Plextor brand Taiyo Yuden are you?

[Bhairav]

Is the 1600 upgradeable to the 1620?

[Ian]

Is the 1600 upgradeable to the 1620?

Yes. Free upgrade from BenQ.

[Dartman]

Wow... I can only get that with Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+Rs.... you aren't using Plextor brand Taiyo Yuden are you?

I'm using the newest fuji disks, minus, made in Japan. Best Buy Had a good sale on both types last week. I had heard they worked fast in both the NEC 3500 I have and the BenQ 1600/1620, plus my dvd settop recorder uses minus so it's been a win win for me so far. I should have gotten some of the plus too.
When they get the minus working better with crappy media and start adding 4x at 8x (I hope) this drive will be almost perfect, too bad it wont do DL at 4x.
Mine is a upgraded 1600 by the way.

[pchilson]

Yes

Hi Ian,
Any timeframe on the review?
How about a "preview"?

[Ian]

It's coming soon. Hopefully later this week. Any info in particular you're looking for?

[pchilson]

It's coming soon. Hopefully later this week. Any info in particular you're looking for?

Just curious about the current firmware and it's general burn quality on oversped media on both -R and +R...

[Vanderlow]

Emperor of cdrinfo.com is reporting an upcoming firmware for the DW1620 that will add the following features:

- 4x R+ DL
- Improvement on writing DVD-R/RW media
- Enable media FE/RE signal detection (use BenQ's tool)
- Support higher PI/PO reading speed.

supposedly it's coming soon.

[Ian]

BenQ's not the only one adding 4x DL...

[dolphinius_rex]

It's coming soon. Hopefully later this week. Any info in particular you're looking for?

Just curious about the current firmware and it's general burn quality on oversped media on both -R and +R...

With B7K9 I believe CMC and Verbatim 4x DVD+Rs can be burned at 8x. I don't know of any 4x DVD-Rs that can be overclocked. There are several 8x DVDRs that can be burned at 12x or 16x. Pretty much any Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, Sony, or Daxon code can be kicked up a notch or two from 8x. CMC 8x can also be overclocked I think.